Southpaws are not popular in every country

I am left-handed.

Apparently, this is a fact that some people think I should keep to myself.

Once, during some friendly if contentious banter, I told a French friend of my predilection. She immediately alerted me that "left" in her native tongue is the word gauche, which in English means awkward or crude.

"Perhaps you should rethink how you use your left hand," she told me.

I had an instant retort for her nonsense. "In America, being left-handed, or a southpaw as we say at home, often indicates someone who is extremely artistic," I said.

"I wouldn't count on that," she came back at me, suggesting once again that I avoid advertising what she called a malady.

Growing tired of her tirade, I have since given in, trying to act as ambidextrous as possible whenever I am around my French friend. She has seen me throw a ball with my right hand and she has watched me wave with my right hand, each time giving me major kudos for doing so - such sweet rewards.

Still, I remain stupefied by her left-handed compliments. Whether a person who favors one hand over the other is in any way better than someone who does not is a discussion I still want to take on with her in the future.

Meanwhile, during our visits I continue to hone my right-handed skills, even learning to sign my signature that way. I don't do this because I can't hold my own in a discussion. The truth is that the French aren't the only ones wary of a person who favors the left hand over the right.

For instance, in much of the Middle East, the left hand is considered unclean because it is used to tend to personal hygiene. I have read that in some countries it once was common for a criminal to be punished by lopping off his or her right hand. That way the lawbreaker was left to live with only the unclean hand, an effective way to ensure that he or she be shunned by society forever.

Although this is not such a commonplace consequence today, I still am not taking chances. As is the custom, I use my right hand to hand a gift to another person whenever I visit Asia. In the Middle East, I pass a dish of food at the dinner table using my less-stable right hand.

Following are other ways in which the hands should be used in very particular ways in very particular countries:

- Clapping can be effective for many occasions. For example, in much of Eastern Europe, audiences show approval by clapping in rhythm at an event such as ice skating. In North America, rhythmic clapping, when done slowly in a public arena at, say, a concert, is a sign of impatience. In China and Russia, clapping is a common way to greet the public, thanking them for being there.

- Here in the United States, it is not especially offensive if you beckon someone to join you by raising your hand, palm upward, and then moving your index finger up and down in a curling motion. However, this gesture in Australia, Hong Kong and Indonesia is considered extremely off-putting because this is the way animals are called, not people.

- Pushing your hand out in front of you with your fingers splayed can be an effective and acceptable way to silently say stop in this part of the world. In Greece this same signal is seen as an insult. The taboo goes back to ancient times when the enemy was hand-rubbed in the face with dirt or even human excrement.

For more stories on being culturally correct around the world: